Retribution
by itsYOUiSEVER
Summary: "Goddamn right, you should be scared of me." Evangeline lost her son that day. She fell into a hole that she didn't know how to get out of. All she had left of the life she had before was Frank Castle, a man on a mission for vengeance. To take away the pain that she was feeling, she decided to find herself some retribution. Frank/OC
1. Chapter 1

**{I edited this chapter a bit but the majority of it is the same. I will be adding in major changes to Chapter | Two though so yeah}**

 **Retribution**

Chapter | One ~ "The world is cruel"

There was a copper taste on her tongue as she came to. Bright white lights appeared and disappeared above her head and there were voices saying things around her but she couldn't hear them properly, to her they only sounded like they were trying to talk to her underwater. Her eyelids were heavy so much so that it was hard for her to keep them open. They'd flutter shut for a few moments until she managed to gain a sliver of her strength back just to open them for a few second only to repeat the action. She was being moved down a hallway, most likely a hospital from what she could tell, at least it seemed that way from the smell and the tacky wallpaper. There was so much going on around her that she couldn't think all that straight.

Her chocolate brown hair was fanned out on the pillow below her head, caked with her own blood, not that she understood that. Her blue eyes seemed to almost be losing their color, fading from a bright pure blue to almost a silvery-blue. Her skin was pale from all the blood loss.

Her fingers twitched a bit as her body regained movement but she didn't try to sit up, not with the excruciating pain that was throbbing through the upper part of her body. Her left shoulder felt like it was on fire and there was a pressure building up right next to her collar bone. Something foreign was inside of her body but she couldn't tell what exactly. Her brain wasn't working properly and she really couldn't remember in that moment what had occurred about an hour earlier. She didn't understand why she was being rushed down the hospital hallway nor did she understand why she was in such pain. She tried to lift her head up to see what was causing her so much pain but a cold hand gently rested atop her forehead, coaxing her to lay her head back down on the pillow that was below it.

"Miss, you need to stay still. Everything will be okay." A voice floated into her ears sounding all distorted and almost cartoon like as if Nathaniel was watching his favorite TV show again.

At the thought of her eight year old son, she bolted up from her laid out position on the gurney and frantically looked around for his little mop covered head. He had been right next to her. He couldn't have wandered that far. "Nathaniel. Where is Nathaniel?" She croaked out as she was pushed back down against the gurney by the hand that was putting pressure on the gunshot wound to her left shoulder. Pain embedded its way through her body from the gunshot in her shoulder to her numb toes and she screamed out in pain, calling for her son. "Where is my son?" She screamed as she tried once again to sit up on the gurney but the pain that waved through her body sent her into a fit of movement that she couldn't control. Her body convulsed and contorted into ways that she'd never moved it before.

Her harsh movements caught the nurses and paramedics pushing her through the hospital's highway off guard and the metal bar of the gurney smacked into the wall, sounding much like something she had heard less than an hour earlier.

 _A gunshot._

One gunshot in particular because she had heard many gunshots not an hour earlier. She had been looking at the joyous face of her son, Nathaniel, and not two seconds later a loud shot rang out and a hole was torn clean through his chest. She remembered the hollow feeling that spread through her chest as she had moved to his side, trying to comfort him as he slowly died.

She didn't remember exactly when she had gotten shot but she knew that her son was dead. He had died a painful death that shouldn't have even happened. None of that should have happened.

Her gaze went back up to the brightly lit ceiling and tears fell down from the corners of her eyes as she let the realization that her son was dead sink in. She laid there on the gurney as she was pushed into the operating room and she didn't move anymore. She just let the doctors do what they needed to. If she died during this surgery, she didn't care. She had nothing left to live for.

"Miss, can you tell me your name?" A voice coming from the left side of her body asked her as she tried to keep her eyes open and look around the room she was currently in.

"Evangeline." That was all she managed to get out as her head lolled to the side a bit but she didn't pass out. She was very well aware of all the movement around her and the sounds of the different medical instruments knocking against the stainless steel carts that they were brought in on.

"Okay, Evangeline. I am Doctor Sturm. I'm gonna be operating on you. I will do my best to make this as painless as possible but I cannot risk putting you under and possibly slipping into a coma." The voice replied as Evangeline heard the sounds of surgical gloves being put on and she knew that she was about to fall into a world of pain. Though as the doctor operated quickly on her to save her, she felt nothing. She was numb.

* * *

"Frank, you've got to wake up. Please. I can't lose everyone. I've already lost David, Nathaniel, Maria, Lisa and Frankie. I can't lose you too." Evangeline's voice was broken, hoarse and underused as she sat beside Frank Castle's hospital bed, holding on desperately to his unresponsive hand for dear life. She had been in the hospital since the shooting which was about two weeks ago. She was actually physically fit to leave. Her left arm didn't throb in pain anymore when she moved it but she still had to wear a sling. Doctor's orders. She wasn't mentally fit to leave.

A few days after Evangeline woke up from her emergency surgery, she had tried to increase the flow of whatever was hanging on her IV stand in an attempt to possibly end the numbness that she was feeling but the nurse who had been checking up on her found out what she had done before anything could really happen. After that the doctors that came in to check on her treated her like a child who needed to be watched. Truth be told Evangeline understood why they were keeping such a close watch on her but she knew for a fact that she wouldn't be trying anything like that any time soon. After she had learned that Frank had essentially survived the shooting, she had been asking her nurses to go see him pretty much everyday wanting to be there when he inevitably woke up.

Frank was all she had left of the life that she had before. She had met him at her husband's funeral. He had been in Frank's unit overseas and he was that particular unit's driver. It had been a routine drive through of the area when their caravan hit a roadside bomb and the vehicle that David, Evangeline's husband, had been driving had landed directly on it's roof which came down on top of David, killing him almost instantly.

Evangeline could remember distinctly the phone call she had gotten from Frank as he told her that David had been killed in action. She remembered the raw feeling that she had felt in her chest and it was the same feeling as was in her chest right then, while she held onto Frank's cold hand. Frank had been very nice as he talked her through a panic attack that she had managed to get herself into once he had told her what happened to David. Evangeline almost smiled at the memory of Frank calling her ma'am for the first time.

He had told her that he and David had made a promise to each other that if either of them died that they would take care of the other's family. That's what Frank had been doing for the past year. He had gotten home from his last tour and after a few days of recuperating, he had shown up at Evangeline's apartment to check in on her and Nathaniel. To be honest, Evangeline had fallen in love with Frank over the time that he had been taking care of her and Nathaniel but she never acted on it or even let anyone know because she respected Maria and Frank too much to do that. She was just happy to have someone like Frank in her life.

He was the only thing keeping her from ending it all. He was laying in the hospital bed next to her strapped up to various machines that were keeping him breathing and his heart beating. His head was wrapped up so tightly as if his brains would spill out if those gauze weren't there. There was a slight bruise on his right cheek like he had landed on the part of his face. Evangeline just wanted him to open those dark brown eyes of his. That was all she wanted. She sat there and praying to whatever God would listen to her to just let him wake up.

"Frank, please. Give me a sign that you can hear me." She whispered as she laid her head down on his forearm, squeezing his hand just a little bit to keep herself from crying. She scrunched her eyes shut tightly to block the tears from spilling out and her long dark brown hair fell over her face, hiding it from whoever walked in. That was when she felt a slight movement in Frank's hand. Her head shot up quickly and her gaze fell right on his face with a grin on her lips. He was gonna pull through. She just knew it.

* * *

In the month since the shooting, Frank really hadn't shown any signs of waking up besides the one time he had moved his hand when Evangeline had asked for a sign from him. He honestly was a vegetable. He heavily depended on the breathing machine to live. Occasionally people in suits would come into his hospital room which Evangeline had been moved into seeing as the hospital's psychiatrist thought it would help her improve having someone she knew in the room with her.

Evangeline had tried to take her life some time after Frank had squeezed her hand. She didn't really know why she had done it. She had just felt so alone. Frank hadn't responded to her voice again and her own mother had visited her to tell her how Nathaniel's funeral went. That wasn't something that exactly helped her. The night after her mother had visited her, Evangeline had punched the mirror that was located in her room's bathroom and it had shattered at the impact of her fist. A long jagged piece of the mirror landed right at her feet and she picked it up to look at herself. She saw a broken woman. Someone beyond repair. Someone who just needed release.

That's where her nurse found her, lying on the bathroom's floor with a jagged cut across her wrist. Doctors had suggested putting her into a psychiatric care facility but Dr. Frederick, the hospital's psychiatrist, had suggested moving her into Frank's room to remind Evangeline that she did have someone to live her.

Today would definitely break Evangeline.

She had been sleeping when the suits walked in. The male nurse who had been authorized to watch over Frank had quickly followed behind the men in black suits with an earpiece in one of their ears. He seemed frantic which is what made Evangeline stand up from her bed.

"What's going on?" Evangeline asked as the two men in suits turned towards her and seemed surprised to find her standing there.

"Get her out of here. She doesn't need to be here for this." One of the men told the male nurse as he walked into the room and tried to pull Evangeline out of the room but she wouldn't let him. She thrashed and struggled to get out of the man's grasp and being the skittish man he was, the nurse immediately let go of her when she started moving against his arms.

"Put me the fuck down!" Evangeline screamed as she shoved the nurse away from her and she turned to see the doctor who had been checking up on Frank walk in with a solemn look on his face.

"Get security and get her out of here. We need to get this done with now." One of the suits told the male nurse as he ran out of the room to get security. Evangeline stared at the two suits and the doctor. It was then that she realized what exactly was going on. They were going to pull the plug on Frank. They were going to take him away from her. She was going to have no one.

"No, you can't do this! He might wake up! YOU'RE GOING TO KILL HIM!" Evangeline screamed as the male nurse walked back inside the hospital room with two security officers who were looking over at the young woman with sympathy across their faces. The officers stepped over towards her and gently took hold of her arms, pulling her out of the room as the doctor moved towards the machines keeping Frank breathing.

Tears fell down Evangeline's face as she was escorted down the hallway by the two officers and she couldn't just stand back as those men pulled the plug on Frank. Evangeline slammed her elbow as hard as she could into the officer on her left side's face and then she jabbed the other one in the ribs with her right elbow. She could hear the officers yelling at her but she didn't look back. She ran back towards Frank's room only to hear the telltale continous beep of the heart monitor machine flatlining.

Her heart stopped then. She stumbled against the wall due to the shock that she felt upon hearing the sound of the monotonous beep, dragging out. Her breathing became ragged and harsh as she pushed her way down towards the room she had been dragged out of. Her eyes immediately shot up to the doctor's face as he walked out of the hospital room with a weary look on his face. His eyes then settled on her and she clutched a hand to her chest, trying to make the pain there stop.

She made it into the doorway of Frank's hospital room before she fell to her knees and broke down entirely. She screamed out in agony and tucked her knees into her chest, trying to make herself small, maybe small enough to disappear. Big ugly sobs wracked through her chest as she rocked herself back and forth in a motion that made her look crazy. She was unaware as the doctors and nurses moved the machines that had been keeping Frank alive out of the room. She didn't fully come to until she felt a hand on her shoulder.

She quickly moved away from the hand and saw the male nurse standing behind her with sorrow in his eyes but she wasn't having his sympathy. She pushed herself up onto her feet and she went right to Frank's side. She sat down in the chair that had been pulled up next to his bed and laced her fingers through his, just wanting to feel his hand in hers at least on last time. Evangeline then leaned across his chest and laid her head down over his heart, silently hoping that it would start beating again.

"Please come back." She whispered as she shut her eyes and gripped his hospital gown in her hand. She needed to hear him. She needed him to open his eyes and wake up. She needed him.

"Miss, we are gonna need to remove his body." The male nurse spoke softly to Evangeline as he tried to place a hand on her shoulder but she quickly shrugged it off and loomed over Frank in a protective manner. She wasn't going to let anyone take him from her. She wasn't going to lose anyone else. She had already lost David. She lost Maria, Lisa, Frankie and Nathaniel all in the same day but she wasn't letting Frank die. When the nurse tried to come closer to Frank, Evangeline let out a low growl in a very animalistic way.

She moved to start performing CPR on Frank when he suddenly sat up in his bed with a low gasp, scaring the shit out of both the male nurse and Evangeline. "Frank…" Evangeline breathed out as she stepped right up next to his bed and hesitantly placed her hands on the sides of his face. He looked up at her with his large brown eyes and she could tell that he realized what had happened to them. He remembered what had happened to his family. His hand came up, reaching for one of her own and he grasped onto hers like she was the only thing keeping him from floating away into the atmosphere.

Evangeline leaned her forehead down so that it was pressed up against her own and she took in a deep breath, relishing in the fact that he was alive. Frank's hand moved to the base of her neck and he pulled her back from his face to get a good look at her. She was pale from lack of sleep and her body had thinned out a lot over the month since the shooting. Dark black bags were underneath her eyes showing exactly how little sleep she had been getting. She hadn't been taking care of herself at all because she had been more worried about him.

"I saw you get shot." Frank whispered to her. His voice came out more like a croak from the dryness that coated his throat. Evangeline made her way across the room to where her hospital bed was and grabbed the glass of water that was on the little side table, bringing it over to Frank. She tilted the cup towards his lips, allowing him to slowly swallow the cool liquid and she could see the relief that the water brought to him. She then set the cup of water down and pulled the hospital gown off her shoulder to reveal to Frank the scar that she had on skin from the gunshot she had sustained.

It didn't go unnoticed by Frank that there was a bandage wrapped around her wrist but he didn't ask about it. She was glad that he didn't. She didn't want to talk about that just yet. Not when he just woke up.

"You got shot too. Scrambled your brains a bit." Evangeline replied to him as she gestured towards the small bandage that was on the left side of his forehead where he had been shot. He reached his hand up and gently skitted his fingers over the bandage before looking at the male nurse who was watching the exchange between the two. The nurse then walked over to the opposite side of Frank's hospital bed and Frank reached for the man's scrubs, pulling him in close.

 **"Take us home."**

* * *

 _ **Author's Note:**_

 _ **I have fallen in love with Frank Castle. :) there is the first chapter of Retribution, let me know what you guys think of this so far! I will go further into Evangeline's background in these next few chapters before we actually get to season 2 of Daredevil. She is going to be going through a hell of a lot in few chapters and I am having an interesting time writing her. I hope that you guys enjoy this story and leave me a little review, letting me know what you think :)**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Retribution**

 _Chapter | Two ~ "You should have fucking killed me"_

Nathaniel had been only four years old when David died. He hadn't really understood the concept of death at that point. Evangeline could distinctly remember the words that had come out of her son's mouth when they walked up to the opened coffin where David laid at rest with Frank Castle right there alongside Nathaniel.

 _"When will Daddy wake up?"_

Evangeline had been unable to answer Nathaniel's question. The moment those words had left his mouth, she burst into tears as the realization that her son was going to grow up without his father. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Frank bending down into a crouch in front of her four year old son with a sad smile on his face as he rolled up the sleeve of his uniform to show the young boy the bandaged wound that was hidden under the fabric.

"Hey, little man. Your dad, he isn't waking up but he is a hero," Frank had softly said to Nathaniel as the boy looked up at where his father laid to rest before turning his attention back to Frank who took hold of Nathaniel's hand and placed it on top of the bandages on his forearm. "Your dad, he saved my life. This is a reminder of your daddy. He died a hero, Nathaniel." Evangeline watched as her son's fingers flexed over the bandages on Frank's arm while he noticeably contemplated the words that the older man had spoken to him. There were tears in his little blue eyes and she wanted nothing more than to gather her son up in her arms but he needed this with Frank. "Your dad, he asked me to take care of you and your mom. Do you think that you can help me with that?" Frank asked the four year old before him as tears spilled down his little rounded cheeks, falling to the marble floor below them and Nathaniel slowly nodded his head at Frank's words.

Frank then gathered Nathaniel up in his arms, keeping one hand pressed against his head of brown locks and the other arm locked under his thighs and he let the little boy cry. Evangeline watched as Nathaniel let out all the emotions his little heart had been feeling and she stepped forward to press a soft kiss to his head. Frank let the hand that had been holding onto Nathaniel's head drop as he wrapped that arm around Evangeline and brought her into his chest. It was in that moment that Frank Castle became her rock.

When the nurse dropped them off at the Castle residence, Frank couldn't bring himself to go inside. Evangeline understood why. She made her way through the house to grab clothes for Frank along with any food that was still good in their cupboards. Truth be told, it hurt Evangeline probably just as much as it hurt Frank to be there at that house without his family being there. Walking through their rooms knowing that they weren't ever going to be coming back, that killed Evangeline. She could imagine little Frank running around the house with Nathaniel in tow and Lisa sitting at the kitchen table, drawing various pictures. She could hear Maria laughing at some stupid joke that Frank made in the kitchen as she walked through the house to make sure that she didn't miss anything that they may need.

She stopped when she reached the front door and looked at the large cargo jacket that was hung on the hook just next to the door. She took the jacket in her hands before slipping her arms into the sleeves and walking out the door. She slung the duffel bag full of clothes and food over her shoulder as she walked towards where she had left Frank and headed down the street with the large brooding man just a few steps behind her.

"Hey, that's my jacket." Frank called out to Evangeline as she nodded her head and threw the duffel bag at his chest, causing him to stumble back a bit.

"Yep, you are a warm blooded male. I am a cold blooded female. I need this more than you right now." She told him as he chuckled at her words and slung the duffel bag over his shoulder.

Evangeline knew one thing for certain. They would figure everything out. Together.

* * *

It took the two of them about an hour to reach Evangeline's apartment. Frank asked Evangeline several times as they moved towards their destination if she wanted to go in there or not but she needed to go in there. They also needed somewhere to rest and this was their best option in that very moment.

They had to pick the door's lock to even get inside the apartment which apparently was a skill that Frank possessed, not that Evangeline was going to comment on that. Neither of them moved further than the doorway for a good few minutes. Evangeline just took in her apartment and everything felt foreign, like she didn't belong there. It all felt wrong. Nathaniel wasn't there to greet her with his childish glee. She didn't move from the spot that she had planted herself in until she felt a hand grasp onto her shoulder, gently nudging her further into the apartment before shutting the door behind them.

"I'll make us something to eat. You go take a shower. You look like shit." Frank told her bluntly as she scoffed at his words and headed down the hallway to where the bathroom was but not before she stopped at the open door that lead into Nathaniel's room. It was still messy. She should have known that he hadn't actually cleaned his room but she had wanted to take her son for his word. His racecar bed wasn't made and all his toy cars were still thrown across the floor. There were a few books left on the ground here and there as well as stuffed animals that if anyone asked him, he would deny that he had them.

She didn't realize she had been crying until the tears rolled down her cheeks and fell onto the tops of her hands. She quickly wiped the wetness from her face, wanting to hide that she had been crying. She wanted to be strong for him and for herself but she felt anything but that. Her head was all over the place. She was happy that Frank was alive. Yes, she was but a part of her wished it had been Nathaniel who survived. She just wanted to hold him one last time.

She turned away from Nathaniel's bedroom, glancing back at the entrance to her apartment to see Frank standing there, looking at her cautiously. He obviously had seen her crying. She just shook her head at him and walked into the bathroom, locking the door behind her.

The sight of her own face in the mirror was scary. During her stay at the hospital, she had really only ever ate when the nurses force fed her. Her face was ghastly to say the least. She had lost weight. Her brown hair was very dry and frail looking from the lack of showers and the fact that she had barely any nutrition in her body. Her skin was pale, almost translucent in a way. The face staring back at her wasn't her own anymore.

She ran her fingers through her hair and gripped the strands, pulling ever so slightly to feel anything at all. She then let out an agonized scream and threw her fist into the mirror, shattering it into a million pieces. She hissed at the stinging feeling that spread across her knuckles where the glass had cut in her skin but the pain felt good. It took away from the numbness that she felt.

There was a voice yelling at her from the other side of the door but she didn't acknowledge it. She just stared at her bloodied knuckles.

"Evangeline! Please, just open the door." Frank spoke softly in a tone that was barely above a whisper. She could imagine him pressed up against the door, a hand on the door knob and the other laying flat against another part of the door. "Come on, Evie. Just open the door for me. Let me help you." She let go of everything inside her then. All the emotions that had been buried deep inside. She allowed them to spill out as she let out one last blood curdling scream. The agony that she was feeling inside resonated from that scream.

She slipped down into a fetal position on the cold bathroom floor as far away from the door as she could get herself. Her back was pressed up against the bathtub and her knees gathered up to her chest. She kept her bloodied hand in a fist, causing more blood to flow from the cuts on her skin. She stared at the small pool of blood that was collecting on the floor just a few inches from her face. She kept her eyes on the crimson fluid as the bathroom door was thrown open, banging against the wall with the force in which it was slammed open with.

Footsteps moved towards her and hands were on her body but she didn't look up. Dark jeans came into her field of view and his voice floated into her ears. "Evie, let me see your hand." He said to her as he took her injured hand gently in his own and began to pull out the pieces of mirror that were embedded into her skin.

Pain flowed through her and in a sick part of her mind, it felt good. The pain took away the grief that she felt. It stopped her mind from settling on her dead son and how she had last seen him. All she could see whenever she thought of Nathaniel was him lying dead on the ground with a hole in his chest. His little blue eyes stared up at her with no emotions in them as he took his last breath.

Sharp stinging in her hand brought her back to reality. She looked up at Frank who was crouching close to her body with her bloody hand in his own, dabbing a wash cloth over her knuckles. "Thank you." She whispered to him. Her voice barely came out of her throat as tears started to form in her blue eyes. Frank stopped what he was doing with her hand and moved his hand so that it was cradling her neck, making her look up at him.

She could feel him moving his fingers against her hair like he was trying to hold onto something that he knew was real. She sat up from her spot on the floor and placed her hand where he was holding on his own neck. She moved in closer to him and pressed her forehead against his own, allowing herself to feel him. To see that he was there and that she wasn't alone. "You're here. I'm not alone." She muttered underneath her breath as she squeezed her free hand into a fist and the pain flowed through her once more.

He was right in front of her. And Nathaniel was never coming back.

* * *

The two of them eat in silence. Neither had said much after Frank had finished bandaging up her knuckles which were pretty gnarly. It was safe to say that neither one of them knew what they were going to do next. Frank had just woken up earlier and everything was still unclear to Evangeline.

They'd try to sleep tonight and figure things out the next morning. That's what Evangeline told herself as she made her way into her son's room, sitting down at the edge of his bed. His face stared at her from the frame that sat on the end table next to his bed. It was a picture that she had taken of Nathaniel and Frank on the carousel. The memory of that day made Evangeline smile ever so slightly, knowing that her son had been on top of the world in those moments.

Evangeline then laid herself fully down on her son's bed and curled up with his racecar blanket, breathing in his smell as she placed her head on his pillow. His favorite stuffed animal laid on the floor right next to the bed and Evangeline couldn't stop herself from picking the teddy bear up in her hand, bringing it in close to her chest. The teddy's fur was matted and tattered from the years that Nathaniel had slept with him in his arms.

A soft knock on the door caused Evangeline to sit up straight on his bed. Her eyes were met with Frank's chocolate brown ones and she could see the sorrow in his face as he looked at the picture that she had been looking at not seconds earlier. "It wasn't your fault." She voiced as he moved his gaze to her while he walked further into the room, maneuvering his way across the minefield that was Nathaniel's room. Frank then sat down alongside the bed with his back to her and he took one of Nathaniel's racecars in his hands.

"How is what happened to him not my fault? I called you that morning and invited you to come with us." Frank said these words with anger in his voice, not anger towards Evangeline but anger towards himself.

Evangeline didn't blame Frank for what happened to her son. There was no reason to blame him for that because he couldn't have known that what happened that day would have happened. There also was no reason to blame herself yet she was doing just that. Nathaniel had been asking to go ride the carousel for days and when she got the call from Frank asking if they would like to go with him and his family, she knew she had to say yes because Nathaniel loved Frank and his family. She wasn't going to keep him away from people who made him happy.

"Nathaniel had already been asking to go to the carousel for a week before you called. I was going to take him that day anyway. Nothing would have changed." She told him softly as she reached a hand out and placed it gently atop his head of dark locks. "I blame myself, I want to die, Frank. I wish that he was still alive or that I had died alongside him. I tried to kill myself two times while I was in that hospital. I feel empty inside and I don't know how to make that go away. When David died, I had Nathaniel who needed me to be strong for him but now, I have no one."

Frank lowered his gaze down to the race car in his hands as those words spilled out of her mouth. She knew that something about her words had bothered him. Then it hit her. She had said that she had no one to be strong for but Frank was right there, in front of her, alive and breathing. She then sat up, bringing her legs over the side of the bed; her knees on either side of Frank's shoulders before she leaned down wrapping her arms around his torso.

"I am trying to be able to live with everything. I just need time." She whispered into Frank's ear as he brought a hand up to grip her forearm and bring her even closer to him. She could tell that he needed this comfort too. She rested her cheek at the top of his head where his hair had grown to an unruly length and she let herself fall into him, not literally but mentally and emotionally.

"You need time to heal too. Tomorrow, I'll cut this mop off your head." Evangeline told him as she ran her fingers through his unruly hair, smiling when she saw him relax against her.

"I need to go to the bank. You can give me a haircut after that." He responded with as she gently massaged his shoulders and she frowned at just how tense he was.

"Sleep on my bed tonight. I'm gonna sleep here." She softly said to him as he brought one of her hands up to his mouth, pressing a gentle kiss to the inside of her wrist before standing up and walking out of the room.

* * *

Her dreams were filled with cruel images. Images of Nathaniel alive and breathing danced around her brain, taunting her as she slept. Then those images were quickly replaced with his cold lifeless face.

Evangeline didn't sleep much that night. Around 4 in the morning, she pulled herself up from her son's bed and made her way down the hallway towards the living room area to find that Frank too was awake. He was lying across the couch with his arm resting across his forehead like he was blocking the sunlight from his eyes even though there was no sunlight coming in from the windows. His gaze was on her as she walked into the room and came to his side, gently nudging his knee with her hand. He then sat up on the couch, moving so that the armrest of the couch was nestled right up against his ribcage and she lowered herself to where his knees were previously on the couch.

"Couldn't sleep." Frank spoke. His words coming out more as a statement than a question. She just nodded her head at him and fiddled with her fingers in her lap. She knew that Frank was as much speaking for her and he was speaking for himself. She wondered if he too had dreamt of his family. She wondered if he had dreamt of the shooting or a time that they were together and happy. She didn't want to ask him that though. He wouldn't ask her those kind of questions so she decided to pay him the same respect.

"I'm going to be gone for a good majority of the day, Evie. I got some things I need to take care of. When I get back, I may let you near my head with some scissors." He told her, keeping his gaze anywhere but her.

There was a bit of fear in her in that moment. A fear that Frank would leave her alone and not come back. Her body became rigged with the fear that coursed through her veins and Frank definitely sensed the change in her. When he tried to reach out to her, she moved away from him out of his reach and stood up abruptly.

"I'm going to come back. I'm still going to protect you, Evie. I'm not going to fail David. Not like I have with Nathaniel." His voice was once again just above a whisper, a soothing sound to her ears as he took a step towards her cautiously, giving her a chance to move away from him if she wanted to. She didn't move from her spot in front of him and instead stepped into him, wrapping her arms around his middle. She leaned against him like he was the only thing keeping her afloat and buried her face into his chest to hide herself from the world.

She knew that he'd try to keep his promise to David. She just was afraid he'd end up dying because of it.

* * *

Frank was gone for most of the day just like he had said but it was the not knowing where he was that was killing Evangeline. For most of the day, she had just sat on the couch waiting for Frank to return. Her body eventually let the lack of sleep she had take over and she fell asleep on that couch only to be shaken awake by a person she assumed to be Frank but when she opened her eyes, she was not met by Frank's face.

A man stood over her with a gun in hand and he had it pointed directly at the middle of her forehead. It didn't take long to recognize who this man was. She remembered his face from the hospital. He was one of the fucking suits who had tried to kill Frank. His beady eyes almost grinned down at Evangeline and it disgusted her.

"Don't even think about trying to fight me. I'll just shoot you." The man said rather bluntly as he sat down on the coffee table in front of where Evangeline was on the couch and he kept the gun pointed at her while he looked around the living room. She couldn't tell exactly what he was looking for but she knew that there was a very high chance that she wouldn't make it out of this alive.

"What do you want?" Evangeline asked in a low voice as he turned his attention back to her and sent a bone chilling smile at her.

"You, Evangeline, know too much. Can't have you spilling the truth out, can we?" He casually told her as another man walked out from somewhere down the hallway, most likely Evangeline's own room, and she too recognized him from the hospital.

"What the fuck are you even talking about?" She asked him with venom in her words as the other man leaned against the wall that was opposite to the wall that her couch was backed up against. She could see that he too had a gun and it was in a holster that was tucked under his suit jacket.

She thought to everything that Frank had taught her about self defense and shit like that but none of that prepared her for being held at gunpoint by two men. She knew if she moved in a way that seemed threatening to either one of them, she'd be dead. There was a chance that she might be able to wrestle the gun from the man who was sitting in front of her but there was also a chance that she'd get shot in the process. There was nothing around her that she could bash his head in with. The only thing within reach was a small side table lamp.

"You know about us pulling the plug on Frank Castle. You were there in that shooting. Can't have you trying to be noble and telling everyone what really happened that day." The man who was sitting in front of her spoke as she stared directly into his eyes with a coldness written across her face.

"You don't want me to talk about how my son was shot in front of me. Where is the justice for my son? For his life that was taken away before it should have been? I won't be quiet. I won't let you silence me." Evangeline growled at the man as he sighed lowly and tucked his gun into the back of his dress pants before standing up and sending a look at the other man over his shoulder. He then abruptly grabbed ahold of Evangeline's hair and yanked her to her feet roughly, causing her to slam her knee into the coffee table. She cried out in pain and clawed at him in an attempt to get him to let go of her but he just kept his hold on her and pressed the muzzle of his gun to the skin under her chin.

"You either do this willingly and things are over quickly or you force me to do make this a living hell for you. It's your choice, Evangeline." The man snarled into her ear as she fought against him, elbowing him sharply in the ribs which caused him to drop his hold on her hair. She fell to her knees before him and quickly tried to make her way into the kitchen for some sort of weapon but was stopped by an arm wrapping around her middle.

"FUCKING LET GO OF ME!" Evangeline screamed as loud as she could as the man placed his hand over her mouth and she threw her weight around hoping that would throw him off balance. When that did nothing, she bit down as hard as she could on his fingers. A metallic tasting liquid gushed into her mouth as the man behind her screamed out in pain and shoved her away from him, giving her a chance to run to the kitchen.

She grabbed ahold of the frying pan that she had used for cooking breakfast earlier and held it in her hands like she would have held a bat. "Fucking stay back!" She growled at them as the man who had been pointing the gun at her stepped forward with a menacing look on his face.

"Looks like we are doing this the hard way." He snarled at her as he charged at her, crouching low as to grab her around her middle but she quickly reacted, stepping out of the way and slamming the pan against his face as hard as she could. The metallic clang of the pan sounded out through the apartment as the man got back up only to have her bring the pan back down on the side of his head. When she raised the pan one more time to hit him, her arm was yanked backwards in a motion that caused her to cry out in pain. The pan was taken from her grip and it was smashed against the side of her own head.

She fell to her knees and clutched where the pan had come down on her. Her arms were then grabbed in a vice grip that she tried desperately to break free of but the grip on her limbs only tightened. The man she had bitten was grasping her arms while the man who she had been beating with the pan took hold of her feet. As they tried to bring her into the bathroom, she thrashed against their hold and even landed a good kick to the man who was holding her legs' jaw.

"NO! LET GO OF ME! FUCK!" She screamed as they shoved her into the bathtub and the man who she had bitten kept his foot against her chest as the other man went to grab something from the kitchen. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she tried to fight against them but she couldn't do anything.

"This will be easily be ruled as a suicide considering how the hospital thinks you ran away." The man who held her down sneered at Evangeline as she screamed out in agony only for him to slam his foot down on her face. The other man came back into the bathroom with a large kitchen knife in hand and that made Evangeline freak out. She thrashed underneath the man's boot as she tried to catch him off balance and maybe make him fall on the knife that his partner cared. Wishful thinking.

The man's boot was lifted from her chest only to have him move behind her so that he could hold her in place with an arm wrapped tightly around her neck. The other man moved towards her with a dangerous look on his face as he lowered the knife and grabbed ahold of her arm in a vice grip that she tried her hardest to break free of. "LET ME GO!" She screamed as the knife was brought down on the skin of her wrist and it bit at her, drawing out crimson blood.

"GET THE FUCK OFF ME!" Evangeline screamed as she fought against the chokehold that locked her in place and she tried her hardest to yank her arm from the other man's grip. She cried loudly each time the man dragged the knife across her skin to draw out more blood.

All of a sudden, a loud bang rang out and blood spattered across Evangeline's face. The man who had had a vice grip on her arm was staring at her with a hole in the middle of his face where his nose used to be. His body fell forward and slumped against the bathtub.

"Fuck!" The man who had a chokehold on her yelled as he dragged Evangeline up to her feet and the two of them were met by the sight of Frank Castle holding a smoking pistol.

"You're supposed to be dead." The man said in disbelief as he stared at Frank who was anything but dead.

"Yeah, you should have fucking killed me." Frank practically growled out as he pulled the trigger and watched as the bullet pierced through the man's eye and his body fell to the ground with dead weight almost taking Evangeline with him. Frank quickly stepped forward and caught her arm before she fell to the ground. Her arms immediately went around his neck as she clung to him out of fear.

"I'm here. I'm here." He whispered to her as he looked around at the mess that was her apartment and kept an arm securely wrapped around her. He still had a firm grip on the pistol that was in his hand as he moved through the apartment swiftly searching to make sure that he had gotten rid of the threats. When he was sure that all the threats to both his and Evangeline's lives were gone, he slipped the pistol into the back of his jeans and cradled Evangeline's face in his hands, forcing her to look at him.

"They were going to kill me. They said that I knew too much." Evangeline whispered against him as she looked at the dead bodies that laid out on the floor with blood pooling around them. Then she did something that Frank hadn't been expecting.

She moved forward and took one of the men's guns in her hand. She then pointed the gun at the man who she had bitten and unloaded the clip into the man's chest with a cry of agony leaving her throat as she knelt down next to the man and smashed the butt of the pistol against his face until it was unrecognizable.

Frank then stepped forward, taking the gun from her grasp and wrapped her up in his arms. She sunk into him and gripped the cargo jacket that he was wearing tightly in her hands. Her breathing was ragged and forced as she leaned her head against his chest.

"We'll get justice for our families, Evie. I promise you." Frank told her as he grabbed the duffel bag that she had taken from his house and he started shoving some of her own clothes into it.

Justice, to Evangeline, didn't sound like enough. She wanted those who were involved in the shooting to feel her pain. She wanted vengeance. She wanted them all dead.

* * *

 _ **Author's Note:**_

 _ **There it is! Chapter Two! Let me know what you think of the story so far, I'd love feedback from you guys. Thanks to all those who favorited and followed this story! I am hoping to have another chapter up soon. :)**_


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